Your Water Footprint schmied©2008 all rights reserved
How much water do you really use? "Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink!" is a lament by many a famous sailor adrift on the high seas without any fresh water, including the Ancient Mariner.
At present we are all starting to get adrift in water woes. That's because there are getting to be too many people on the planet and clean fresh water is becoming a scarce commodity on Planet Earth. Feel lucky you are in Puget Sound! Today you are going to do some fancy footwork and calculate your water personal footprint, then compare to countries around the world.
A water footprint includes all of the water you use for drinking, cooking, and washing as well as the water it takes to make your food, clothes, paper and other goods you need regularly. So let's find out how much water you really use!
Your voyage begins at "http://www.waterfootprint.org/"
Once here, go to the National Water Footprints tab and select "Your Country"
- Enter United States, then click on "submit to database".
- Then answer the questions below: (Remember to use UNITS!)
1. What is the Average water footprint of a United States citizen.
2. Describe the part of the US footprint that is falling (needs water from) outside of the country.
3. Find the Global average water footprint.
4. Tell how much more water Americans use than the Global average (on average).
5. Now calculate the avg. water footprint for the Country of Chile.
6. Tell how much more water Americans use than Chileans. SHOW WORK! In m3/capita/yr
Go to Your Footprint Calculator tab, choose Extended Calculator and complete the survey for yourself. (Ask parents for help as needed, income etc)
7. What is your personal water footprint?
8. Calculate how much more/less your personal water footprint is than: (Use UNITS)
a. The United States average (1 above)b. The average Global Water Footprint (3 above)
c. The Chilean average (5 above)
Go to the Product Gallery Tab, select the water footprint for each of the products.
9. List the 3 products needing the most water and tell how much each needs.
10. Find the 3 products on the site that need the least water and tell how much each needs.
11. (EC) Find the average water footprint of a. Germany, b. India, and c. China and then calculate how much more or less each is compared to:
a. The United States average (1 above)b. The Global average Water Footprint (3 above)
Environment Basics Index Project Page Home © 2009 John Schmied all rights reserved
